Tag Archives: I Do The Impossible

Wednesday night (1/5/2011) was rough. I was sore as hell and the WOD was tough. We also did a lot of stuff prior to the WOD, which tired me out. Here’s how it went down:

Warm Up

Run to the end of the block & back. It was about 1/2 mile.

Stretches

25 GHD Sit ups/Back Extensions

Skill

5 minutes of handstand walking practice

WOD

7x

7 cleans (I used 115#)

30 double unders

This took a little over 18 minutes for me. I don’t remember my exact time, but I was being really careful on the cleans to not hurt my back. The double unders went really well for me. Aside from the fact that I just don’t have the lungs for them, I completed the workout without getting mad, throwing the rope, or using lots of bad words. I got to ring the PR bell for that =)

The “I do the Impossible” challenge kicked off today! I went into the clinic yesterday (1/7/2011) to get measured, weighed, and to have my body fat calculated (a sorry 23.6%). I sat with Dave and talked a little bit about what I wanted to accomplish and we listed out 5 goals:

See a downward trending in body fat analysis.

Cycle 10 butterfly pull ups.

Get a sub 9 minute mile.

Go up in weight on snatch.

Go up in weight on dead lift.

The last 2 goals are a bit iffy and depend a lot on how my back does over the course of the next 8 weeks. Additionally, we talked a lot about diet and food, so, if I’m at a party at your house in the next 8 weeks and you don’t see me eatin’ it up, that’s why.

The WOD that they put us through was pretty tiring. Didn’t look so bad on the board, but I was pretty beat when it was over. It was:

7 minutes to find your 1RM dead lift. I stopped at 315# as I was starting to lead with my back and I didn’t want to push my luck. I haven’t d/l’d more than 135# since injuring.

1 min rest

1 min max thrusters @ 95# – I got 20.

1 min rest

1 min max pull ups – I got 20.

2 min rest

2 min max distance on C2 – I got 523m.

2 min rest

3x (5 burpees, 10 push ups, 15 squats) – I did this in 4:15.

I am looking forward to seeing what I can do in the next 8 weeks. Wish me luck!

CFCP has this challenge coming up called “I do the impossible”. I had been wanting to do it, but was highly discouraged by the price tag. Under normal circumstances, it would not be a big deal to pay to play, but with the baby on the way and all of the things that need to get done/bought/prepared, it started to look like less and less of a possibility. I had pretty much given up on the idea of it actually happening.

V had other ideas, apparently. She, along with her family, and some people at the gym arranged for me to be able to do this challenge. Since I had hurt my back in October, I haven’t really ever gotten fully back on track. My eating has been OK, but I haven’t been working out a whole lot. Some, but not a lot. I thought that this challenge would be great to get me going again.

Since I received this gift, I have been thinking about what I think is “impossible”. It sort of reminds me of the quote by Henry Ford that went "Whether You Believe You Can, Or You Can’t, You Are Right".

I try to not really think of things as being “impossible”. More like “improbable” or “yeah, that would take a TON of work”.

For me, in terms of fitness, there are things that are surely impossible. Let’s face it, I am not going to bench press a car or run a mile in 4 minutes. This lead me into thinking about what some reasonable goals are. I am sure that when they kick this challenge off we will talk about this a lot, but I thought I’d start getting my ideas out so it’s not a surprise to pick a goal.

For me, my entire life, I’ve been the fat kid.

Let me back up. I was a skinny kid with pin straight hair and it was awesome. Then I turned 5 or something. At that point, it was like, some genetic “you’re fucked” switch went into full effect. I ballooned up and received my wonderful curly hair with no forehead. It was oh so fantastic.

From that point on, it has been pretty much a life long experience of being on the “overweight” side of the spectrum. Literally, I have NEVER looked in the mirror and thought “yeah, that’s good” or “yeah, I’m cool with that”. Mostly, I just say “eh” or “sigh” or something like that.

In recent years, we have been on the Paleo diet and it’s been mostly good. I feel good most of the time, but still, I don’t really think I look good. Not really happy when I look in the mirror. CrossFit is fun and I love the people that I have met and the friends that I made.

Clearly, I am doing something wrong.

If I had to pick my biggest goal or something that I think is “impossible” it would be to not feel like a loser when I look in the mirror. That’s not really a tangible goal though. I need something measurable and tangible to be able to say “I did it” or “nope, maybe next time”.

I think in the end it will be something like:

“Starting with a body fat percentage of <whatever it is now>, I would like to see a decrease of <something reasonable> with a downward trend after 8 weeks”.

I don’t really care about my weight that much as long as it’s reasonable. Don’t misunderstand here. This isn’t a goal of vanity. I don’t really care what anyone else thinks when they look at me. I’m sure there are people that look over at me and say “oooooohhh tubs” or something similar. I don’t want to “look good” for anyone else (maybe my wife hehe), but me.

I do have secondary goals though which I might try to hit along the way. They are mostly centered around getting back to where I was before I got hurt. I haven’t really thought much about how to tangible set these goals, but the abstract version of these goals would be:

Become comfortable running again.

Get my double unders back to where they were before getting hurt (around 30 before messing up).

Dead lift 445# again and possibly increase it.

Clean & Jerk 205#.

I think there’s more but I don’t have time to list it out right now.

Regardless, thank you to my awesome wife and her family for making this possible for me. Thanks also to all the CFCP people that knew about it and messed with my head. You are true friends and I love you guys and gals .